News from the Nest
Week of August 14, 2017 Related Arts "C" Week
Vision
"Wendell Phillips 63 will establish a positive, engaging, and rigorous learning environment that allows each child to “SOAR to Excellence” as a member of the Cardinal Family."
Places to be!!!
Aug 14- Lesson Plans Due in Google Drive (9:00 am)
Aug 14- DIBELS/TRC BOY Window Continues, 3-6 TRC Window Opens
Aug 15- ELA PLC's
Aug 16- Math PLC's
Aug 16- Staff PD Meeting (7:30 am- Media Center)
Aug 17- Open House/Title I Night (5-7 pm)
Aug 18- Cardinal Shirts/Jeans Day
General Need to Knows
Week 2- CONTINUING TO PUSH THE NEEDLE!! Instruction is and should be picking up steam as we rolled through week 2 and into week 3! Anchor charts should be up in rooms aligned with the rigorous instruction we are providing our students. Guided Reading launches should be in full swing and preparing for teacher tables to be in action soon. Math workshops should also be rolling.
This coming week's staff professional development meeting will focus on several rotations to provide you with the tools and resources to meet our vision of a positive, engaging, and rigorous learning environment:
- Mathematical Mindsets
- Reading Strategies
- KAGAN Strategies
- Teaching with Poverty in Mind
- SFS/Evaluation Training
Please come prepared to engage in meaningful conversation about how to add to our instructional toolboxes and increase whole child outcomes! Rotation schedule and locations will be coming soon!
Long observations will begin this week. On Wednesday we will review the Teacher Evaluation Guidebook during one of your rotations. Please review this ahead of time so we can discuss and you can ask questions. Long observations are at least 20 minutes in length and are unannounced. In your post observation conference, we will discuss the observation as well as setting goals in SFS.
Speaking of goals- K-3 Teachers and Related Arts Teachers- you will need to complete your pre-assessments to determine your standardized measure goals. K-3, you will use a math pre-assessment and TRC benchmarks. Related Arts- you will use your district defined pre-assessment. Please click on the Standardized Measure Assessments button below to access the assessments. Scores should be entered into their respective data trackers, which are found in SFS under the Assessments-General section. This will then be uploaded into your SFS account when we meet individually.
Open House on Thursday will be two parts. Part I will be in the Cafeteria to have our required Title I night presentation to parents. This will be from 5:00-5:30 pm. Parents will then be able to walk their child's schedule and meet you in your classrooms to discuss your programming for the year from 5:30-7:00 pm. Support staff will be available to guide parents and students to your classrooms.
VISION ALIGNED THOUGHT PROVOKERS
Positive classrooms: Continue to reinforce students for the great work they are doing in the classroom and common areas! I look at Dojo point totals and some of us are blowing it out the water!!! Remember- students perform the behaviors we pay the most attention to. When we set the rules, procedures, and routines AND reinforce them frequently, we reduce disciplinary issues.
Engaging instruction: How are we ensuring that ALL students are actively engaged in learning? As you may see on the walkthrough document, there is a difference between being ACTIVELY engaged (participating in the task and speaking to what is being learned) vs. engaged (compliant and listening). Below is a link to the KAGAN website, which will be a focus of one of our PD rotations on Wednesday.
RIGOROUS Instruction: Part of our definition of RIGOR is instruction that is Goal Oriented and Outcomes Aligned with assessment. As we begin to get assessment data, discussions during PLC's will be around how are students did on assessments and how we aligned instruction to our assessments. Goals for your classroom and students should be based on this data and how we will grow our students moving forward. This will be reflected on your data walls in your classrooms.